SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2010  RADIOLOGY MANAGEMENT 28 Radiographer Perceptions of Managerial Transformational Leadership Levels • Transformational leadership focuses on the ability of a leader to impact employ- ees by inspiring employees to broaden interests in work as well as to be innova- tive and creative. It is positively associ- ated with employee satisfaction and commitment to the organization. • Characteristics of transformational lead- ers include confidence,ability to mange and deal with complexity, and belief in their employees and organizations. • Considering the importance of leader- ship skills in radiology departments,this paper addresses directly the empirical evidence concerning radiographer’s perception of their radiology managers and supervisors transformational lead- ership levels in the United States. • Leadership can be taught, and we as a profession must begin to implement leadership training programs for our current and future leaders. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY By Jeffrey S. Legg, PhD, RT(R)(CT)(QM), Duane Akroyd, PhD, RT(R), and Melissa B. Jackowski, EdD, RT(R)(M) Transformational leadership is a theory, first described by James Burns, focusing on the importance of particular traits of leaders and their abilities to impact followers. A transforming leader significantly impacts and changes the lives of people and the organization by inspir- ing employees to broaden their interests in their work and to be innovative and cre- ative. 1–3 Transformational leadership is based on the leader’s traits, personality, and ability to create change through vision and goals. Specific characteristics of trans- formational leaders are summarized in Box 1, but in general, transformational leaders 1–4 : • Become a source of inspiration to others through their commitment to those who work with them, their perseverance to a mission, their willingness to take risks, and their strong desire to achieve. • Diagnose, meet, and elevate the needs of each of their associates through individu- alized consideration. They believe in pro- moting continuous people improvement. • Stimulate their associates to view the world from new perspectives, angles, and informational sources. They ques- tion even the most successful strategies to improve them over time. Transformational leadership is com- prised of the following factors: idealized influence, individual consideration, intel- lectual stimulation, and inspirational motivation. 1–3 Idealized influence refers to the power and influence transformational leaders have over their employees based on the idealized manner in which the leader is viewed. Transformational leaders inspire others leading to employees’ identification with the leaders and mission as well as confidence and trust placed upon the leader. 1 Idealized influence measures the respect, trust, and admiration of the leader. This component of leadership is divided further into two categories: ideal- ized influence attributed and idealized influence behavior. Idealized influence attributed refers to employees identifying with and emulating trusted leaders who are seen as having an attainable mission and vision. However, the idealized influ- ence behavior subcategory entails the leader’s behavior that results in the employees identification with and emula- tion of them. 5,6 Individualized consideration concerns the degree to which the leader understands the employees’ needs, shares their concerns, and treats each as an individual. The result is the associates seek full development, The credit earned from the Quick Credit TM test accompanying this article may be applied to the AHRA certified radiology administrator (CRA) human resource management domain. RM325_p28-34_Features.qxd 9/9/10 10:05 AM Page 28